Sehwag talk convinced Warner of Test push

By Chris Barrett

November 29, 2011 — 3.00am

DAVID WARNER has revealed the catalyst for his transformation from Twenty20 slugger to Test opener: a candid conversation with Indian master blaster Virender Sehwag, who stunned him by saying he would be better at the long form of the game.

The 25-year-old is preparing for a Test debut that for a long time must have seemed as distant as the white cricket balls he has sent careering out of grounds around the world.

David Warner ... Better at Test cricket, according to Verinder Sehwag.Credit:Getty Images

He said yesterday it was a discussion two years ago with Sehwag, his teammate at Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Daredevils, that made him truly believe he could be a genuine success in white. Warner, pigeon-holed thanks to his strike power and scoring rate, had at that point not even represented NSW in a four-day match.

''When I went to Dehli, Sehwag watched me a couple of times and said to me, 'You'll be a better Test cricketer than what you will be a Twenty20 player','' Warner said.

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''I basically looked at him and said, 'Mate, I haven't even played a first-class game yet'. But he said, 'All the fielders are around the bat, if the ball is there in your zone you're still going to hit it. You're going to have ample opportunity to score runs'.''

One of the finest batsmen of his generation, Sehwag will arrive for India's four-Test tour of Australia this summer having scored 22 hundreds in 92 Tests at an average of 52.

The key figure in the 33-year-old's impressive statistics sheet, however, is his strike rate. He has compiled his 7980 Test runs at a phenomenal strike rate of 82.12, by far closer to a run-a-ball than any of his contemporaries.

It is a philosophy that Warner has taken on in his still brief first-class career. He intends to do the same for Australia, starting on Thursday against New Zealand. Content to be cautious with the good balls, expect him to show no mercy with the bad.

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''[Sehwag] always says that the more balls that you see you're going to be tempted to try and score runs but you've just got to keep in the back of your mind what your zones are,'' Warner said. ''If it's in his zone, he backs himself,'' Warner said. ''He's a great player that I've looked up to in the last couple of years, especially when I've been training with him and seeing how he goes about his stuff. He's always got this focus about scoring runs. When he opens it could be 0-100 or 0-150 at lunch.''

Warner's approach is just fine with his opening partner Phil Hughes, who said: ''If he gets going, like he usually does, I'll tend to try and give him as much strike as possible. If he's taking it away from the opposition then I'm happy to be sitting up the other end watching him go. I've got the best seat in the house if that happens.''